The invention relates to the field of the art of aircraft emergency equipment and more specifically it relates to an aircraft comprising a detachable passenger escape cabin, which is mounted onto the fuselage of the aircraft via a speedily released set of connectors and is equipped with parachutes and airbags and with autonomous mechanisms ensuring its vertical upward detachment from the remainder of the airplane which is thence left to fall to the ground.
Various arrangements of aircraft emergency equipment have been disclosed in the prior art, that are aimed at saving the lives of passengers and crew in an aircraft which is faced with malfunction, fire and/or danger of explosion.
The combination of parachute/airbag systems deployed for aircraft emergency landing is known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,544, U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,282, DE-43 20 470 or DE-195 07 069 are examples of documents of the prior art wherein are presented alternative types of aircraft or helicopters in which an arrangement of suitably deployed parachutes is used in combination with an arrangement of airbags, so as to respectively ensure smooth descending to the ground and damp at the maximum possible extent the substantial forces being developed upon impact to the ground.
In an article published in Aviation Week and Space Technology (135-1991-December 16/23, No. 24/25, New York, US) USAF evaluates new parachute/airbag system for F-111 crew escape module and discloses efforts being made towards reducing the speed of falling of the escape module with the parachute and control the sink rate with the airbags, so as to reduce injury rate of the crew.
Furthermore, parachute/airbag arrangements have also been deployed for emergency landing of selected parts of aircraft equipment, such as the jetisonable aircraft fuel tank means proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,693.
Despite of the security improvement attained when such parachute/airbag arrangements are employed in aircraft vehicles, the danger remains since passengers and crew are adapted to perform this difficult and dangerous emergency flight to earth together with the entire aircraft vehicle, which, due to the malfunction and to the fact that it carries fuel or other combustibles, presents an eminent danger of explosion, both during the emergency landing, but also upon its impact on to the ground. Moreover the job of the parachute/airbag system is made much harder, since it has to cope with the excessive load of the aircraft body, engines and cargo unnecessary to care for under such emergency conditions.
To overcome the above drawbacks, solutions have been developed, wherein segments of the aircraft are proposed to be detachably mounted onto the body of the aircraft, so that they might be advantageously separated from the aircraft, so as to carry safely to the ground the passengers of the aircraft in case of emergency.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,097, U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,903, FR-855 642 and DE-198 47 546 provide examples in the prior art, wherein is proposed that aircraft""s may, when emergency conditions arise, be segmented in portions, so as to facilitate safe landing to earth of passengers and/or crew. More particularly, DE-198 47 546 proposes the aircraft to be lengthwise divided in a frontal and a rear portion, wherein under emergency conditions passengers and crew are transferred to the frontal portion which is then laterally cut from the rear portion carrying cargo and fuel. Subsequently the frontal portion is lowered to earth with deployment of a balloon inflated with gas, lighter that the air, on the top thereof, whilst the rear portion falls onto the ground with a pair of parachutes.
Whilst in the above DE-198 47 546 a lateral division of the aircraft is being proposed, U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,097, U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,903 and FR-855 642 propose varying arrangements of longitudinally detachable portions of the aircraft being lowered to the ground with the aid of parachutes.
With the exception of U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,097, they however do not disclose usage of airbag impact absorbing means. In all these documents, the detachable aircraft portions are slidably connected onto suitable rails or track of the fuselage and when detached they carry along the tail portion (empennage tail) of the aircraft as well.
The problem arising with this type of structures is that their detachment from the remainder of the aircraft takes place within a certain period of time necessary for the detachable portion to slide off the fuselage; Even after sliding off, the detached portion may remain for an additional period of time in the vicinity of the remainder of the aircraft, thereby making it possible that an explosion takes place, which is always a possibility under such circumstances. Furthermore the inclusion of the tail portion in the detached portion creates unnecessary excessive load and causes problems in the deployment of parachutes, whereas the exclusion of the cockpit leaves the detachable portion without valuable flight controlling apparatus and instruments.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome the above mentioned deficiencies in the prior art by proposing an aircraft with a detachable passenger escape cabin which extends longitudinally along the fuselage of the aircraft, includes the cockpit, but excludes the tail portion and whose detachment takes place in the vertical upward direction, thereby effecting an immediate moving away from the vicinity of the remainder of the aircraft wherein there always exists the risk of fire or explosion.
It is a further object of the invention to propose the above detachable cabin equipped with parachutes and airbags for its subsequent controlled falling onto the ground and with autonomous mechanisms of launching catapults and rocket motors, wherein the latter may selectively be employed to enhance speed of detachment and subsequently swiftly increase distance of the detached portion from the remainder of the aircraft.
It is a further object of the invention to propose various embodiments of a speedily released set of connectors between the detachable passenger escape cabin and the aircraft fuselage, thereby enhancing possibilities for attaining a fast detachment thereof.
Prior art devices relating to powered release of connectors accommodating hydraulic, pneumatic or pyrotechnic mechanisms of operation are disclosed in GB-2 237 839 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,407 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,932. However disclosures in the above documents do not pertain the specifically proposed characteristics of the mechanisms proposed in the present invention.
These and other objects, advantages and characteristics of the present invention will be disclosed in the herein below detailed description of preferred embodiments.